Page 29 of Love on Deck
“I literally do not know how,” I yelled, right as the song changed. The background beat disappeared, launching us smoothly into the slow cadence of Savage Garden’s Truly, Madly, Deeply. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Jack didn’t look amused. He wanted to slow dance with me about as much as a gazelle wants to hang out with a lion.
I stepped closer. “Let’s just go.”
“One dance, remember?” He leaned forward, his lips brushing my ear. “Can’t give them reason to doubt us now.”
He was right. For the sake of my sister’s trust—and the MediCorp conference—I had to see this through. I let Jack slip his arms around me while I held on to his shoulders.
“Loosen up,” he said, moving his arms a little. “You’re like a robot.”
“I tried to warn you.” I inhaled slowly, turning my head to let the breath out while I tried to relax my muscles and sway to the music with him. I caught Amelia’s face beside me while she swayed in Kevin’s arms. She grinned, shooting me a quick thumbs up.
Jack’s warm breath tickled my ear, driving goosebumps down my neck. “The trick to dancing is relaxing,” he murmured. “You can’t move with the beat if you’re tense. You have to breathe, relax, feel it in your body, then move accordingly. Not what you think you should do, just how you feel.”
Right now I was feeling Jack everywhere. His hand on my waist, his other moving over my back, his stomach pressed to mine, his breath in my ear. I couldn’t relax, or I’d be even closer to him. It was hard to remember he was Enemy Number One when it felt so good to be held—even to this song.
“You’re doing a terrible job of relaxing,” he said.
“It’s not easy when the devil himself is trying to coerce me.”
“Okay, fine. Think of someone you like. Got a guy back home?”
“No.”
“Just think of one. Anyone. The last really good date you went on.”
I searched my brain but came up short.
Jack peeked down at me, pulling back a little and giving me some breathing room. “Don’t say you haven’t gone on a date—”
“If I’d had a really good date recently, don’t you think I’d still be with that guy?”
“Not always,” he muttered, looking away.
Amelia was watching us sway like stiff cardboard. My eyelids fluttered closed. I tried to loosen up, let the beat flow through me, slow as it was. I let Jack lead, tried to be putty in his arms.
“It’s not working.” I stopped in the middle of the dance floor.
Jack nudged me along gently, watching me, a groove between his dark eyebrows. “You really can’t dance.”
“Never tried to pretend otherwise.”
“Huh.” He gave an understanding, enlightening nod.
His acceptance was annoying. I knew I was rhythmless, but he didn’t have to look at me like I was some foreign alien specimen. “It’s not that crazy. Lots of people can’t dance.”
“But they can at least follow a lead.” His hands moved on my waist a little, but he didn’t let go. Didn’t pull away. “It’s weird,” he muttered, his gaze like floodlights searching me. There was no escaping it.
“What?”
“You have a fault, Lauren. That means you’re human.”
To that, I had no response.
“I figured you were half cyborg or something with all the rigidity and the lists and the schedules... you know what? That theory still stands.” He nudged me. “You’re still about as stiff as a cyborg would be.”
My lips pulled into the smallest hint of a smile, and I shook my head. His words were unkind, but his eyes weren’t. It almost felt like he was playing my game now. Giving me what he thought I wanted to hear.